Kaylee's Princess Birthday Party

Today Kaylee had her birthday party with her friends. She really wanted a princess party so a few months ago I started looking around for princess stuff for a princess party...then she went to one of her friends birthday party at a spa right next to our house and she knew exactly what kind of princess party she wanted. So, I gave up on trying to find princess stuff for a party and we decided to schedule a party at the Primrose Retreat and have a "Spolied Rotten" princess tea party.

We got there and they told us that the girl in charge of parties wasn't there yet but she would be in just a few minutes. By the time the party was scheduled to start the girl still wasn't there so they told us they would be having someone else come in to help us with our party. The other girl came in and basically said the dress-up clothes are over there they can change and play. She came back a few minutes later to check on things, eventually they had a fashion show, and tea party...anyway, I took a million pictures and tossed a ton but there are still a bunch that I liked so much I wanted to post them...so, here we go.

While we were waiting for guests, and for the party director to arrive, Kaylee and Gabby had fun exploring and playing with princess items throughout the room:

After they got the party going and told the girls to dress-up we had a whole bunch of princesses running around ready to pose:

For those of you who wonder what happens when you take college girls to a princess party with a runway...Here's what you get. The superstars: Marla, and Tiffany:
After dressing-up (and Marla and Tiffany's fashion show) the kids had a fashion show. Each child got to walk down the runway, twirl or pose, and then walk back. We convinced Jaren to walk Savannah down the runway and then twirl her.

After the fashion show the person that ended up being in charge of the party told the kids to play some more while she set up the tea party. There was one little girl from Kaylee's school that decided that she really liked Jaren and she was following him around and then was chasing him around. She got the other girls into it too. Izzie loved him so much, it was so funny watching them.

The "Lady in charge" was taking quite a while setting up the "Tea Party" and it was getting close to the time when the party was supposed to be over. So, while we waited for the tea party Kaylee opened her gifts:
The kids all got settled in for their "Tea Party" and sang "Happy Birthday" to Kaylee. They got pink cupcakes and either pink hot cocoa, or pink 7-up. I also got each of the girls a tiara set with earrings and a ring, and a personalized princess charm bracelet.

Here are a few group pictures I got at the party:

The first group is Gabby, Kaylee, Jaren, and Savannah (Kaylee's sister and cousins):
The next group is: Jessica, Annika, Kaylee, and Izzie (Some of Kaylee's friends from school):
After that I got: Gabby, Noelle, Maren, and Kaylee (Sister, and the best friends and old neighbors ever):
Finally we have the "Onlookers" they mostly sat, watched, laughed, and made sure everything was going okay. There is Nicola, Janeene, Ariana, Marla, and Tiffany:
For our last group picture we have all the kids together that attended the party:

7 Year Wedding Anniversary

Today Paul and I have been married for 7 years. I went up to Washington 7 years ago to visit Paul for New Years and came back married. It has been a wonderful 7 years with a loving, supportive, and just goofy guy. He is such a wonderful husband and dad. He is always trying to help around the house, and with our girls. When he's not helping it's because he's goofing around with the girls RIGHT before bed and getting them all wound up. He has been so wonderful working hard so I am able to stay at home with our girls.

Five Years ago today Paul, Kaylee, and I were sealed together in the Salt Lake Temple. So, today is our 7 year wedding anniversary, and our 5 year anniversary of when we were sealed.

I am looking forward to spending the rest of my life with Paul. He really is so incredible (and cute). I look forward to our many adventures together starting with our next big adventure to Hawaii.

We Wish you a Merry Christmas

"We Wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year"

This year we decided to celebrate Christmas at my parent's house. With our house up for sell it was easier to keep all of our Christmas stuff at their house, it was a lot easier to hide Christmas presents, and keep my house clean if people wanted to come look at our house. It turned out kinda interesting...Spencer and Wendy are staying at my parent's house right now still waiting to hear about the house that they have an offer on and their house has already sold...so, there were 12 people staying at the "Oveson Hotel" on Christmas eve. Somehow everyone had to share a room except for my brother Chris. Somehow he still ended up with his own room.

First it started out with our Christmas Eve family tradition stuff (after Kaylee's birthday stuff). We each got to open our pajamas from my parent's and our exchange gifts to each other. All the grandkids got pajama sets with robes this year:

We all found our rooms at the "Oveson Hotel" and got up Christmas morning to a family room full of gifts. Kaylee and Gabby were especially surprised to find that Santa brought them new bikes this year:

They also found tons more exciting gift waiting for them. Gabby kept declaring "This is what I ALWAYS wanted" or "This is just what I asked for" after every gift that she opened.
After we were done opening gifts and were almost done cleaning up Roman decided that he wanted to try out Kaylee's and Gabby's new bikes. I think that he is thinking about getting himself a big bike:
Gabby decided that since Roman was trying out the big bikes, maybe she should try out the barbie size bike:

Happy Birthday Kaylee

Kaylee turned six on Christmas Eve!!! I can't believe I am old enough to already have a six-year-old. Kaylee loves that her birthday is on Christmas Eve, she loves all the festivities, and Christmas, and family, etc. For her birthday this year we went to my parent's house. Here's the basic rundown of what we did:

I brought sugar cones for the kids to make and decorate Christmas trees:
After they were done decorating we had our family Christmas Eve dinner, and then Kaylee was VERY, VERY anxious to open her birthday gifts:
Then, Roman decided to help try to wrap a gift:
Then came the cake. Every time we go to the grocery store Kaylee has been asking if she could PLEASE order a cake for her birthday. When it finally came time to think about cake she REALLY insisted the she wanted to order the cake at the bakery. So, she went and picked out her cake, and went to the bakery counter. She told the woman that she wanted the Cinderella cake, she wanted it to be chocolate cake with strawberry filling, and cream cheese frosting. Yes, she ordered it all by herself and it turned out lovely. Kaylee is NOT a big fan of cakes but she loved her birthday cake. She even found some princess wand candles (which were almost lost when it came time to do the cake).

Baby it's cold outside!

Today was Paul's family Christmas party (with his extended family). We went up American Fork Canyon for the party. It was fun AND COLD!!! There is a sledding hill so we made sure to buy a sled to go sledding. Kaylee was only outside for a few minutes and a huge gust of wind came through and blew up a ton of snow and she ran for cover. Gabby went down the hill a few times on the sled with Paul before she surrendered and went inside. I'll admit it...I was a wimp and I only went outside to take some pictures of the activities.
Paul was either braver...or crazier (Personally, I'm going with crazier) than the girls and stayed outside even with the crazy hard blowing wind. When he came in he was frozen numb head to toe.
Every year at their Christmas party Paul's grandpa brings a pinata for the kids. This year they couldn't find a place to do the pinata inside so everyone bundled all up and went outside to hit the pinata.
After knocking the Winnie-the-Pooh pinata apart, and the kids grabbing all the candy everyone came back inside. Gabby found the Winnie-the-pooh head and the girls decided to put it on:

Cousin's Christmas Party

Today Kaylee and Gabby had a cousin's Christmas party for Paul's family. They were so excited to get an invitation in the mail just for them, and then go play with their cousins. It snowed all morning which made getting there interesting, but the kids had fun playing in the snow...wait...by kids, I mean Paul. He went running out in the snow and on the trampoline without a jacket and shoes! Crazy kid!
The kids all got to decorate graham cracker houses that Jess put together for them. Paul, Kaylee, and Gabby had so much fun decorating, and then eating all the candy off the table and off their houses. Paul had so much fun with the graham cracker houses that after he helped Gabby he helped Kyra with hers too.

Kaylee did an excellent job decorating and didn't want any help. As soon as she was done assembling the decor she started the demolition and was eating all the candy off that she had just put on.

Gabby was more interested in eating candy while Paul was decorating her house. She did get in on the decorating too.

Kyra was asleep while everyone was decorating their houses...so when she got up and started decorating, Paul started decorating too.

After decorating houses it was time for the gift exchange. The cousins do a book gift exchange and it's a lot of fun.
All the cousins with their books: